War Thunder is a free-to-play, cross-platform MMO combat game for Windows, Linux, Mac and PlayStation®4 dedicated to military vehicles used in the World War II and the Korean War periods. Fight in major air, land, and sea battles, with international players in an ever developing environment.

July 31

We are pleased to announce, a brand new design for the War Thunder webstore (including other games from our company), which is now called the Gaijin.Net Store
With the launch of the Gaijin.Net Store we have prepared new types of items that can provide Premium accounts only or offer other combinations of Premium accounts and Golden Eagles.

In addition, we present the long-requested option to purchase some of the packs as gifts, more info here.

After purchasing this item you will receive an activation key located in Purchase History in your profile, and then you can gift this code to a friend. For activation, please go here.

From 15:00 GMT on July the 31st until 9:00 GMT on August the 3rd:

30% discount for gift versions and 25% discount for regular version of the following packs: To celebrate this, we are launching a special sale:[/list]

Pilots, the time has come to prove your skill in controlling the highest class of aircraft available in War Thunder! Join in with this weekend’s “Black Thursday” event to engage in jet warfare over Korea!

Black Thursday is the nickname given by USAF pilots to a a Korean War event which took place in the famous ‘MiG Alley’, in which Soviet MiG-15 jets attacked B-29 Superfortress aircraft during a bombing mission over Korea.

MiG-15s curving in to attack USAF B-29s

MiG Alley, as the region is referred to by United Nations pilots, is a portion of North Korea which was the site of numerous dogfights between UN and North Korean forces. Nations allied with North Korea also took part in the air battles of this region, including airmen from the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The term “MiG” in this region’s nickname is a reference to the Soviet built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft which were predominantly used during most of the conflict. This site is known to have been host to the world’s first large scale jet-vs-jet air battles, as MiG-15’s clashed with jets such as the North American F-86 Sabre.

On the 12th of April, 1951, three MiG-15 squadrons, with a total of 30 aircraft, attacked a group of B-29 Superfortress bombers of the USAF, and following the events which took place during this attack, pilots from the USAF began referring to this date as “Black Thursday”. The B-29 aircraft were under the protection of about 100 F-80 Shooting Star’s and F-84 Thunderjet’s. Despite being clearly outnumbered, the pilots of the MiG-15’s were able to fly past their non-swept wing foes, and engage the B-29s. In total, three were shot down, and 7 were damaged, and the Soviet side had been able to accomplish this without any casualties. Following this event, US sorties in the region were halted for a period of about 3 months. Night missions, using small groups of bomber aircraft, continued after this, as daylight attacks on Korea were discontinued.

About This Game

War Thunder is a free-to-play, cross-platform MMO combat game for Windows, Linux, Mac and PlayStation®4 dedicated to military vehicles used in and around World War II and the Korean War. In War Thunder, you can take part in major battles on land, in the air, and at sea, fighting with real players from all over the world in a continuously developing environment.

War Thunder already offers a highly detailed experience in military aviation and ground forces combat, giving players access to a Guinness World Record breaking number of aircraft, as well as an abundance of tanks and other combat vehicles - and the number is constantly rising.

You can feel the unmatched intensity of aerial dogfights in a fighter, the decisive power of commanding a heavy strategic bomber or the heat of battle in a ground attacker, delivering precision strikes against your enemies. Alternatively, you can join the spearhead of armoured vehicles, fighting for dominance over the battlefield on the ground: Man a heavy tank with impressive armour and firepower, use the maneuverability of a medium or light tank to your advantage, or support your team by screening the skies with your anti aircraft vehicle - the choice is yours!

In the future, the game will also allow players to ‘set sail’ by commanding a variety of warships in the fight over the control of the world’s oceans, giving the game a truly epic scale.

Master your vehicles through both upgrades and personal experience in an environment that is constantly expanding and rewarding the personal skill of the player. Organise your efforts in one of the countless player squadrons and become an ace pilot or tanker - or both! Our thriving and welcoming community of millions of players is also actively participating in the game’s ongoing development, offering custom content through War Thunder Live, such as skins, missions and even vehicles.

War Thunder has something for everyone. Play cooperative games with your friends on Windows PC, Linux, Mac or PlayStation 4 against AI, or squad up for a PvP battle in a difficulty setting matching your play style, ranging from Arcade to Simulator using Mouse and Keyboard, Gamepad or Joystick.

Features include:

Right into the heat of battle - Intense PvP experiences in full-scale combat missions on various difficulty settings for all play styles and degrees of experience.

A single bullet can make a difference - A realistic damage system for aircraft and ground vehicles involving individual component durability instead of an overall health bar.

The true free to play experience - Download and play the game for free as much and as long as you like it. Support the ongoing development entirely at your own leisure.

Crossing the platform border - Seamless cross-platform gameplay between Windows PC, Linux, Mac and PlayStation®4 (more to come) with tens of thousands of players from all over the globe online at the same time.

Play together with your friends - Rich PvE content including historical and dynamic campaigns, solo missions, a mission editor and much more for single-player and cooperative gameplay.

Challenge the best of the best - Ever expanding tournament and clan battle systems, including ELO-based ranked matches as well as professionally organized events involving hundreds of players.

Joined America as a pilot.Hours of practice and training.Totally ready for realistic mode now.Decided to become a bomber in realistic mode in Saipan. Started out on an aircraft carrier.Increased throttle.Ohhhhh yeah ♥♥♥♥ just got real. Wingspan was too wide for carrier.Right wing hits the superstructure and falls off.Oh ♥♥♥♥.Bomber and pilot, along with three gunners, plunge into the ocean.At the last second pilot thinks back to the girl back home, the one he left behind.Drowns.Have to wait 9 minutes for early death penalty.

After hundreds of hours on this, I can honestly say I cannot reccomend this game. The real issue is how ♥♥♥♥ed the battle rating system Gaijin implemented is. You may not notice it at first... but eventually it will drive you crazy. Because it will never be fixed, never. This is the second problem, the developer is actively hostile to player feedback. On the forums people's posts concerning negative aspects of the game are deleted by the moderating staff with no reason given. It's just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ company... The payment model, while fair, is horrendously overpriced, and never on sale. The grind for this game is absolutely insane. It takes soooo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long to grind out anything past tier 3 in aircraft that you will quickly grow sick of it. (Edit: By the way trolls, I'm saying this because I'm grinding out tier 5, not because I haven't gotten to tier 3... morons.)

I wish I could reccomend this game, because at its core warthunder is one of the best flight sims out there (and when the match maker isn't being ♥♥♥♥, games can be incredibly fun) but for the reasons stated above, I simply cannot. There are developers that treat their customers with a million times the respect that gaijin shows for its playerbase. Games like Warframe really show how absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gaijin is about rewarding their playerbase and how bad their free to play model actually is.

Save you time, save your money, play something else. Go outside, work out, you will feel a million times better about yourself than if you waste your time on this.

Edit 1: To the commenters that say "KEKEKEK Yall just suck at this game, git gud" You will be deleted. That is not a valid criticism, and even if it were true it doesn't make any negative critique of the game invalid. I have seen frankly amazing players making the same criticisms of this game. I've been playing this game for years and have finally gotten fed up, if you are still enjoying the game I have no intention of taking that from you, I am only warning you that the things that annoy you about the game now are likely to be there for quite some time.

Edit 2: I have had some time to cool down away from the game, and have even tried getting back into it for the 1.51 update. While I can say that I still have fun in this game from time to time I still cannot really reccomend it. Not yet anyway. They made some neat additions and added some cool planes, but really it's still the massive, frustrating time sink I remember. If you've only just started this game you can be forgiven for thinking that it's awesome. It is!... Until you try to be serious about progressing, then it turns from fun into literally pulling your hair out. I would reccomend trying this game, and then maybe playing for an hour or two every week but no more than that... It's hard to find a game to get your WWII flight sim fix these days, especially for free. So unfortunately it doesn't really have much in the way of competition. Once again, I wish I could reccomend this game but my opinion hasn't changed, spend your time and money on a game/developer that respects its players.